


If you have been starving, a creature of bone

by missivesfromghosts



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Canon Trans Character, M/M, Trans Character, Trans Cullen, trans people dating trans people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missivesfromghosts/pseuds/missivesfromghosts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen is content with where he is. He has a life and a purpose. He’s doing the Maker’s work and he’s cut the Chantry’s leash on him. He barely thinks about the fact that he’s trans anymore. The last person who knew he was born anything different, barring his sister Mia, died during the Blight. This works for him.<br/>That is, until he starts falling for Krem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you have been starving, a creature of bone

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to tumblr user takethesword for dreaming up this canon with me.

Krem's hands seem to be everywhere at once, touching, groping, sliding under his shirt. Cullen is losing himself in the heady feeling of their kiss. He can feel every other thought dissolving from his head. It happens like this every time. Krem says something witty and biting. Cullen responds in kind. Krem turns it into an innuendo; Cullen stammers; Krem pushes the advantage; Cullen denies unconvincingly. The next thing Cullen knows he is grasping at Krem's shoulders while he is pushed back against his desk, the stone wall of the tavern, or once the sacks of flour in the store room. Everytime Cullen makes his escape before things progress, heart hammering in fear and want. 

Krem's hands roaming over Cullen's abdomen then down to grab his ass bring Cullen back to reality. Cullen has to tell him. The two of them have never had a conversation about it before, but Krem had casually mentioned it one night when Cullen had been invited to drink with the Chargers (a night he regretted intensely the next morning). It had left Cullen reeling. If Krem hadn't already earned Cullen's admiration for his ability on the field. If crossing blades with him on the training grounds wasn't the most fun he'd had in months. If he didn't already feel a rush of warmth in his face when Krem turned that smirk on him, he would have cut and run. But he was already invested and with that came the simultaneously damning and exhilarating realization that if there was anybody he would ever trust with his secret, it had to be Krem. He'd been meaning to for months. Well, that and because Krem was determined to put his hands down Cullen's pants _right now_.  
"Krem. Krem, wait." Cullen gasps, grabbing Krem's wrist. 

Krem stills obediently. "Sure. What is it, boss?"

"I'm sorry. There's something... I'm not--"

Cullen sees confusion and disappointment chase themselves across Krem's face. "No problem. I can give you some space. Sorry."

"No! Well, yes. I mean." Cullen takes a deep breath. Now or never. "I'm like you," he blurts. Just like that, two decades of silence shiver apart. He immediately feels a rush of nerves so strong it makes him want to vomit.

"You're like me, what?" Krem looks even more confused.

Oh for the sake of Andraste herself. 

"I'm like that. Like how you are." He makes an abortive gesture at all of himself, trying to indicate his body. He is cocking this up. He doesn't know how to say this. He's literally never had this conversation before. By the time he arrived for templar training everyone thought he was a scrawny boy and then magic had taken care of the rest. "I was a girl first. Or. they thought I was. I don't know-- I don't know how," Cullen doesn't swear but he swears now. "Shit."

Krem rocks back on his heels like he's been physically hit. If Cullen didn't look like he was going to vomit or pass out on the spot, he'd think this was a cruel joke. "You're not fucking with me, are you?" He says softly. It's an admission of belief rather than an accusation.

"I-- no. I'm not."

"Well. Damn." Krem sits down heavily on the barrel standing against the wall near them.  
Cullen feels his stomach sinking. This was a terrible idea. 

But Krem knows the anxiety of this conversation well and he forges ahead. "It doesn't bother me, obviously. And my feelings remain the same. I've just never... met anyone else. And I. It's just a lot."

"Right." Cullen says, trying to let go of the tension in his body.

Krem fidgets. His words come out halting. "I have so many questions. Can we... talk? And come back to what we were doing, ah, later. Maybe not behind the requisitions office." 

"Yes," Cullen breathes. He doesn't really want to talk about it. He wants to go back to kissing him and pretend this didn't happen, but he sees the logic in Krem's words. 

Krem stands against and gives Cullen a considering look, biting his lip. "Look. This doesn't change how I feel about you. I like you. A lot, you could say. If you feel differently, that's fine. But I'd like this to work out."

Somehow, that helps. Cullen feels some of the tension ease from his shoulders. He nods, not trusting himself to speak without blurting all the wrong things yet.

They go up to his office. They talk about it. And well, if Krem somehow ends up in Cullen's lap, mouth hot against Cullen's own, it's hardly anyone's fault.


End file.
